Holes - Book Report
...owers and given water periodically throughout the day. The orange suits as you can guess weren’t very stylish and their beds were itchy and smelled of rotten milk. It isn’t what you would call a pleasant place. The Warden was in charge and Mr. Sir was the 2nd person in charge. Mr. Pendanski was group D’s counselor. I would describe Stanley as, unlucky, kind-hearted, determined, and strong. The story flashes back over a hundred years ago and tells about Stanley’s great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats. Elya was born in Latvia and was 15-years-old when he fell in love with Myra Menke. Myra was fourteen and she was going to turn 15 soon and when she did, her father decided she should get married. Elya went to ask Myra’s father for her hand in marriage, but so did Igor Barkov, the pig farmer. Igor was fifty-seven years old. Elya offered all his love and Igor offered his fastest pig. Myra’s father said he’d rather have a fat pig. Desperate, Elya went to his friend and guidance, Madame Zeroni, and old Egyptian woman; she was even older than Igor. Madame Zeroni thought Myra’s head was as empty as a flowerpot but Elya had fallen in love with her beauty. Against her better judgment, Madame Zeroni finally decided to help dear Elya. She told Elya to carry a tiny piglet up the stream at the top of the mountains where the water runs uphill everyday and let it drink from the stream and while it was drinking, he was to sing a special song to it. By Myra’s 15th birthday, the pig was sure to be fatter and heavier than any of Igor’s pigs. Carrying the pig up the mountain everyday would also build up Elya’s strength. In return, Madame Zeroni asked for one favor. That is, after the pig is given to Myra’s father, Elya was to carry her up the mountain so that she make drink out of the stream and she wants him to sing the song to her. Elya promised and Madame Zeroni warned that if he failed to do this, he and his descendants would be doomed for all eternity. The day came when Myra turned fifteen. Elya didn’t want to carry the pig up that day because he didn’t want to smell. He carried the pig over to Myra’s father and so did Igor. Both the pigs were very fine looking and Myra and her father couldn’t decide so the pigs were weighed. Elya should’ve carried the pig up to the mountain that day because the two pigs weighed exactly the same. Myra then had to choose who she wanted to marry. Myra didn’t know who to choose so she picked a number and said whoever got the closest number, she would marry. Igor picked a number and when it was Elya’s turn, he didn’t pick anything. He told her to marry Igor and to keep the pig as a wedding gift. Madame Zeroni was right, Myra really was empty-headed. He shouldn’t have worked so hard just to marry a dumb girl like her. How could Myra possibly have trouble deciding between him and Igor? He thought she loved him. Elya wandered aimlessly through town after leaving Myra’s house. He came down to the wharf and was sitting on the edge of a pier when he saw a sign that said, “DECK HANDS WANTED/FREE PASSAGE TO AMERICA”. Elya had no sailing experience but the ship’s captain signed him aboard because he saw that Elya was a man of great strength. It wasn’t until the ship had cleared the harbor and was heading out across the Atlantic that he suddenly remembered his promise to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain. From then on, it was believed that the Yelnats family was cursed and they blamed all their bad luck on Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather. The story flashes back to another scene that also happened over a hundred and ten years ago. This was when there was a small town called Green Lake in Texas and there was actually a lake. Rich green plants grew all over and the place was filled with life. In town, lived a school teacher named Katherine Barlow. She was very pretty and the men that took her classes were more interested in her then in the course. There was a man that sold onions in the town named Sam and he had a donkey named Mary Lou. Sam would go around town with his onion cart and selling his onions and medicine and remedies made out of onions. He believed onions were magic vegetables. Then there was this other guy named Charles Walker that really liked Kate. He asked her out and acted all big headed and she turned him down, destroying his huge ego. That was his first rejection ever. You can imagine he wasn’t too happy with her. Kate and Sam got to know each other better and they really liked each other. The problem was, Sam was a black man and Kate was a white woman. They kissed each other in the rain one day and a nosy neighbor saw and she kept mumbling something about how God will punish them. The news got around the whole town and everyone knew the schoolteacher had kissed the onion picker. The townspeople saw Kate and started screaming and yelling at her and told her how she sinned because she kissed a black man. When Kate said that all men were equal no matter what their skin color, the Sheriff asked her to kiss him because he was equal to Sam. Of course, she refused. Among the townspeople that were there, was Charles Walker, who of course, was very furious with her. They pointed guns and started chasing her. They eventually got to Sam and shot him and Mary Lou. Both of them died. After that, the town of Green Lake began drying up and it all of a sudden just stopped raining. You tell me who God punished. Three days after Sam’s death, Kate shot the sheriff. She applied a fresh coat of red lipstick and gave him the kiss he asked for. From then on, she was known as Kissin’ Kate Barlow, one of the most feared outlaws in the west. Back to the boys and Camp Green Lake…Stanley found out that Zero didn’t know how to read so they made a deal that Stanley would teach Zero how to read if Zero would dig a part of his hole for him. Stanley got a lot of trouble from the other boys. They said it wasn’t fair. The boys got in a fight when Mr. Pendanski, Mr. Sir, and the Warden came. They questioned Zero’s knowledge and he could spell some things but when he messed up on one word, they all started laughing at him. Mr. Pendanski really criticized him, calling him all sorts of names. Zero lost his head and hit Mr. Pendanski hard across the face with his shovel. He ran away along with his shovel but no water. The Warden ordered Zero’s record to be deleted. She thought no one would notice anyways because he didn’t have any parents and who cares about Hector Zeroni. Three days later, Stanley did something he later regretted. When the water truck came to fill the boys’ canteens, Stanley jumped onto the truck while Mr. Sir wasn’t looking and tried to drive the truck. He wanted to go and save Zero, even though he doubted Zero would still be alive. He drove the truck right into a hole. He got out and ran because he knew he was in big trouble. He walked and walked and walked when he came across a boat, half sticking part way in the air, and half buried in the dirt. The boat was named Mary Lou. That was the boat Sam was in when he was shot in the head and fell in the water. Stanley was very relieved to have found Zero under the boat. He found shade there and to keep himself alive, he ate what he called “sploosh”. The “splooshes” were actually Kate’s spiced peaches that she made over a hundred years ago. She would always make spiced peaches for food fairs and contests and she would always win because they were so delicious. She put the peaches in a jar, who knows what kind of bacteria has gotten in there. Stanley suggested they go up to an unusual rock formation that was shaped like a giant fist with a thumb pointing up, up on the mountains that Stanley had noticed back from camp. Stanley’s great-grandfather was robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow once and she left him stranded in the desert. He survived for three weeks without any food or water but he said he found refuge on God’s thumb. No one really knew what he meant by that, they believed he was delirious when he said that. Anyways, along their trip, Zero kept falling to the ground and held his stomach, it must’ve been from the sploosh he ate but of course, he didn’t know where it came from or how old it was. With much work and time, they eventually made it up the mountain. There was mud there and if there was mud, there must be water. Stanley started digging and found water, dirty water actually but dirty water was better than no water at all. Stanley also found some onions and for days they lived off the dirty water and onions. It was about a week before they decided they should head back to camp. Stanley told Zero about how he found a lipstick tube cap with the letters K.B. carved in a heart on it. Now, let’s go back to that story. The Warden said that if anyone found anything interesting while they were digging, she would let them have a day off. X-Ray had been at camp much longer than Stanley and he has never found anything so he told Stanley that if he ever finds anything that looked interesting, give it to him. X-Ray’s eyesight wasn’t as good as his name. Stanley found the lipstick tube cap and gave it to X-Ray. When the Warden saw what X-Ray had found, she gave him the day off and made everyone else dig all around the area where X-Ray was digging. That was a waste of time because Stanley had found the lipstick thing in another area. Stanley now sensed that the Warden was looking for something. Now, back to Stanley and Zero…Stanl...